ESPN’s Katie Nolan reflects on calling Donald Trump a ‘stupid person’

Katie Nolan became the most recent ESPN personality to be embroiled in controversy after entering the political fray when she recently called President Donald Trump a “(expletive) stupid person.” In hindsight, the ESPN newcomer says if she could have it back, she probably wouldn’t have said it.

Nolan made an appearance last week on Viceland’s late-night show, “Desus & Mero.” She bashed Trump during a segment about whether the “thumbs-up” gesture is now a racist symbol “because Trump always does this (thumbs up) with his thing,” opined co-host Desus.

“That’s because he’s a [bleep],” Nolan said (video here — WARNING EXPLICIT LANGUAGE). “Back it up. Back it up. That’s because he is a (expletive) stupid person.”

“I’ve recently learned the lesson that there is a lens on ESPN that I certainly misjudged or underestimated in this current moment that people are focusing on, looking for, interested in, seeing people confirm what they already think about this network,” Nolan told Richard Deitsch. “Looking back in it, if I could just go back and not say it, I would, because it just didn’t mean much to me to have that in there.”

Nolan’s comments came in the wake of a controversy that reached all the way to the White House. “SportsCenter” host Jemele Hill was publicly reprimanded by the network after calling Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter. Trump called on ESPN to fire Hill in the wake of her comments.

The incident ushered in a revamped social media policy by ESPN.

Regarding Nolan, ESPN indicated in a statement that after review, it was determined her comments were “inappropriate” and that the network “addressed it with her.”

Nolan says she learned an important lesson from the fallout from her comments on Trump.

“If I’m going to say something that’s on the line or anywhere near the line, I’m going to make sure it’s a perfect representation of what I actually mean to say,” Nolan said.